


Auntie E

by TheRedHero11037



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Family Drama, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-29
Updated: 2015-10-05
Packaged: 2018-04-24 00:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4897567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRedHero11037/pseuds/TheRedHero11037
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were twelve years of estrangement between Emma Emmerich and her stepbrother, Hal, but Emma was determined to break down that wall. She'd found his new apartment, determined to give them both a family again, but it turned out Hal had found a family without her, and nobody knew where E.E. could fit in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ms. Kovach: if you can see this, you have the right link.

Emmerich. This should be the right door. This should be the right apartment. Did Emma really want to do this? She hadn’t seen her brother since he’d disappeared when he was 15. 12 years ago. Wow, had she really not seen her stepbrother in 12 years? Would Hal even want to remember her? It wasn’t like they had very good memories of each other.

But that could change. Emma rang the doorbell.

The man who answered the door was definitely not Hal. He was tall and muscular, with scruffy brown hair and a cigarette nuzzled into his cleft lip. “Can I help you?” he growled, or maybe his voice was just the gravelly.

Emma coughed at the smoke. “I-I’m looking, ugh, I’m looking for Dr. Emmerich. This isn’t the right apartment, is it?”

The man took a long, slow drag of his cigarette. “What do you need him for?”

Emma raised an eyebrow. “I’m his stepsister.”

The man grunted. “What do you need him for?”

“What do you mean?” She could have laughed. Her expression was nothing short of incredulous. “I’m his stepsister. I want to see him.” The man kept scowling. He didn’t move. He didn’t say a word. Emma ground her teeth. “Who do you think you are? Where’s Hal?”

“First of all, calm down.” The man held up his hand. “Second of all, he’s not home. He’s picking up Sunny. You can stop trying to push inside.” The man stepped out and shut the door behind him, leaving them alone in the hallway. Emma suddenly felt very small. The man was silent and angry-looking and still smoking that damn cigarette. Emma glared into his gaze even though the smoke was making her eyes water. “What?”

“Why did you come out?”

“Because if I was still inside, you’d still be trying to push inside and I’m not in the mood to keep pushing you out.”

Emma huffed, coughed, then huffed again. “Usually it’s polite to let company in.”

“Lady, even if I knew you were E.E., I still wouldn’t let you in. I don’t know if Hal wants you here.”

“You don’t know if I want who here?” came a familiar, confused voice from around the corner. Emma turned around. “And why are you smoking in the hallway? I thought we--” The voice cut off abruptly as its owner saw her.

He was different, but Emma could tell it was still her skinny, weedy, baby-faced stepbrother, only older and taller and with a little girl at his side. He stared at her. She stared at him. The girl tried to hide behind him. Hal let out an astonished puff of breath. “Snake, what is going on?”

“Hal!” Emma cried, before the man behind her could even open his mouth. ”Hal, it’s me! It’s Emma!”

“E.E.?” Hal breathed. He shook his head. “We shouldn’t do this in the hallway. Snake, let’s go in. Besides, Sunny wanted to show you what she made.” He patted the little girl’s shoulder and she ran to Snake, who caught her in a hug and took her inside. Emma glanced at Hal. “Sorry about that. He’s just a little wary about women we used to know randomly showing up… That’s probably my bad. You weren’t out here long, were you? Come on, I’ll make you some coffee or something.”

Hal took her inside. The apartment was nice, even if it did smell like cigarettes. “Somehow, I sort of expected you to still be reclusive and living alone,” Emma teased.

“I’m still pretty reclusive,” Hal admitted, sheepishly pushing his glasses up. The light glinted off a silver band on his ring finger.

Emma pointed at it, more than just a little astonished. “You got married?”

“O-oh, yeah. Yes. I did.” Hal twisted the ring. He looked almost embarrassed. “I’ll introduce you.”  
They walked on into a wide kitchen. “E.E., this is my husband, Snake, and our daughter, Sunny.” He went to their sides with a bashful smile.

They made a nice family. Not quite we-support-gay-rights-look-how-diverse-we-are company ad nice, but nice. Snakes arm fit snug around Hal’s waist, and he’d stopped looking angry. Well, as angry. Emma suspected that was just how his face looked. The girl, Sunny, was absorbed in her work on her laptop, like she’d spent all 8-ish years of her life tapping away like that. Very… Hal of her. “Congratulations.” Emma smiled. “You’re a cute little family.

“We’re happy,” Snake murmured, eyes focused on Hal’s face.

Emma suddenly felt like she was intruding on someone else’s family. Aside from appearance and nerves, Hal no longer seemed like the stepbrother who ran away from home 12 years ago. The kid she’d blamed for ruining her life was gone. In his place was a stable family man. What happened?

“Here, this is it.” Sunny pointed at her laptop. “I made this.” Emma looped around to see what she was pointing at. It was an animation, a chicken bouncing and settling into a nest, drawn with the utmost care. “It’s Solidus.” Sunny was beaming with pride.

(“We used to keep chickens,” Hal explained.)

Emma watched it again. “It’s really good. Do you want to be an artist?”

Sunny shook her head. “This is just a hobby. I want to be a covert programmer like Dad Hal.”

“That’s the ‘proper’ term for a hacker. She likes to sound fancy.” There was nothing but fondness in Snake’s growl.

“I am fancy,” Sunny declared.

“You’re more than fancy. You’re a genius. You’re artistic, witty, open… The only thing you can’t do is cook,” he teased. He tousled Sunny’s hair and she gave a big mock-pout.

Emma looked over the beautiful kitchen and offered, “I could teach her if you--”

Snake’s immediate glare cut her off. It was focused and suspicious; the intense eyes of a soldier. Hal’s arms around his shoulders comforted him only the slightest bit. “No, no, it’s fine,” Hal cut in. His stammer was hasty and filled with guilt.

“Naomi taught me,” Sunny said flippantly as she returned to her work. Snake and Hal both flinched at the name, Hal with obvious guilt and Snake with a less readable expression. Emma tried to decode their faces with little success.

“Who’s Naomi? Your birth mom?” Emma immediately regretted saying it as Sunny shook her head.

“No, my mom’s name was Olga Gurlokovich.” Sunny hit the keys a little harder. “Naomi kept saying she’d be my mother, though. It was really awkward. I was too shy to say that I didn’t need a new mom, and I didn’t want to tell her Dad Hal didn’t love her.”

Oh. _Oh._ So he hadn’t changed as much as Emma thought. She shot her best I-can’t-fucking-believe-you look at Hal, though he couldn’t see it as he hugged close into Snake’s chest.

“I’m going out to the balcony,” Snake hissed, removing Hal’s arms from around him and storming out of the room. He barely stopped to grab a lighter and an ashtray off the counter by the stove.

“Snake, no, please--” Hal reached for him, but Snake swatted his hand away.

“Alone.”

“I love you,” Hal whimpered.

“Love you too.” But it was icy cold.

Hal slumped and wandered to the cabinet above the coffee maker, grabbed a mug, and heated up some coffee for her. Emma stared down into it. It was black as her heart felt right now. She’d intruded on a nice little family that wasn’t hers and began tearing it apart. She was no better than Hal had been all those years ago.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for all your feedback. It's feedback that really drives the updates of this story. I'm so glad you're intrigued and I hope to keep it that way.

Emma watched Hal shake as he stared at his own coffee. It was loaded down with cream and sugar and Hal jostled it around as he tried to calm himself. Sunny stroked her father’s forearm to comfort him, apologizing quietly. Emma felt awkward, just waiting around for something to happen. Hal took a breath and curled his fingers into fists. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Emma watched his face.

“For Snake and I getting upset within thirty minutes of him meeting you. That wasn’t very--”

“It's fine. Relationships are hard.”

“You can say that again,” Hal mumbled, slumping on his side slightly. “What brings you to our doorstep, anyway?”

Emma’s cheeks went pink. “Actually I had a favor to ask you.”

“Shoot.”

“I was hoping I could stay with you guys for a while. I just got dumped and my boyfriend wants me out of the house completely by Monday.”

Hal nibbled at his lip. “I-I don’t know. I think you should ask Snake. I trust you, but he’s always been naturally skeptical. Soldier’s instincts and all that.”

Emma scratched at the back of her head. “I don’t blame you, but I promise I won’t overstay my welcome.”

They sat and waited for Snake to finish his smoke, chatting idly against the clicking of Sunny’s laptop keys. Hal told her about the chickens and huskies they used to have but gave up trying to move them from new house to new house. Emma replied that the only thing her stupid parrot has learned to say is “it’s the Venusian Crab!” and liked to shout that at odd hours. It was this kind of awkward chit-chat that threw a sheet over the elephant in the room.

“Alright, I think I’m better now,” Snake rumbled as he returned. He put the lighter and ashtray back where they were and took a sip of Hal’s coffee. “Did you interrogate her or is that my job this time?” he joked.

“I just need a place to stay for a couple weeks,” Emma put in quickly. “I just need a room with a bathroom and a kitchen and a parking space. Everything else I can do.”

Snake nodded, still sizing Emma up with his soldier’s eyes. “And you picked Hal because…?” He urged her onward with a hand movement.

“Because I don’t have any friends close to work that I trust,” Emma admitted.

“And you trust your estranged stepbrother more than a friend?”

“Yeah. Kind of stupid, I know.”

“Very stupid.” Again, Snake sipped Hal’s coffee, then fixed his husband with a look. “You want her here?”

“I was leaving it up to you,” Hal replied, snatching his mug from Snake’s hand.

Snake put his hand over Hal’s and brought the mug back to his lips. “Then she can have the guest room.”

“Great.” Hal gave him a bright smile. “How about I go show Emma the room and you--” He tugged his hand out from under Snake’s. “--make your _own_ cup of coffee.”

Snake gave a tiny snort of laughter. “Fine.”

 

The guest bedroom wasn’t terribly big. It was nondescript from the outside and looked far more like a mini library inside. Across from the tiny, white-sheeted bed was a floor to ceiling bookcase, so full that there was a waist-high stack of books that couldn’t fit on the shelves sitting beside it. There was a tiny closet and a door that led to the bathroom it shared with the room across the hall, which belonged to Sunny. The walls were ever so slightly blue and the carpet was the world’s palest brown. It was like everything save the books was sun-bleached.

Emma sat on the tiny bed and took in the shelf that stood across from her. Everything was neatly sorted. The volumes and volumes of colorful graphic novels that Hal owned tucked away next to the thick, plain cover military texts that Snake owned. A particularly weathered hardcover sat open on the floor with the name “David” scribbled in a handwriting that somehow mimicked Snake’s stubble. She picked it up to put it away in the hole where it had came from. The cover was a thick jungle green, with _Groznyj Grad_ crossing the cover in deep brown-red. Interesting. Perhaps she'd give it a read soon.

She looked around the pale little room once again. This would be her home until she could find a new one. At least there was plenty to read.


End file.
